For several decades computing systems and the software and applications that execute on computing systems have become both larger and increasingly complex. Although current software is able to perform much more complicated tasks than older software, the added complexity also often increases the difficulty of using the software. To facilitate the use of software, including the configuration and execution, most publishers provide documentation, which has also become more complex.
Without documentation, many software products might be unusable. Further, many software products are difficult to configure and run because of large numbers of possible customization options. One example of such options includes, but is not limited to, the ability to support multiple languages. In light of these issues, documentation becomes very difficult to write and publish. Developers and publishers are also motivated by a desire to control development schedules and costs.
Screenshots are often a critical component of documentation. Screenshots provide the end user with actual images, providing context that helps users better understand the documentation and make better use of the corresponding product. Because many applications are available in such a large number of languages, inclusion of screenshots, which are typically restricted to one language, is not as common as it otherwise would be. For example, in documentation associated with Microsoft Word, published by the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., many included images are simply icons. Attempting to match an icon in a Help window with an icon on a large menu bar can be difficult. Having some context certainly helps, as long as the textual elements in the documentation match what the user is seeing. Additionally, the number of screenshots in documentation that needs to be translated into multiple languages can be limited by the costs associated with translation. Typically, labels and text require a new screenshot for each language.
Another issue is that documentation can become inaccurate if a User Interface (UI) and the corresponding screenshots are changed. In addition to updating text, Information Developers (IDs) must expend time and effort to update screenshots and get proper screenshots into corresponding user guides each time a UI is changed. Another documentation issue is that screenshots require more memory and disk space to store than text. Thus, documentation that includes screenshots consumes larger amounts of disk space after installation that documentation without.
There are several currently existing approaches to address the memory issues. One such solution is to separate the background of an image from the background image using layers and then reusing duplicate layers for different images. This solution is time consuming, often requires a graphics artist to render the images and provides a maintenance problem if screens change. Another approach is to not include screen captures in the documentation. This solution limits usability and useful life of the documentation.
With these issues in mind, what is needed is a technology that renders screen shots and inserts them into the documentation on demand, either dynamically, upon installation of the corresponding software or when the underlying software or configuration is modified. In this manner, documentation would remain up-to-date and could be stored in a more memory efficient manner than currently available.